Listen To The Campfire Story!
A Review of Snoopy's Campfire Stories
Tina Velgos
Do you have a favorite campfire story? Gather 'round Snoopy'sCampfire Stories (Win/Mac) and join this Peanuts gang adventure as theytell kids all about their day at camp.
Of course, you'll have to huddle around your computer to watch CharlieBrown, Lucy, Linus, Sally and Peppermint Patty toast marshmellows in thisinteractive software. Snoopy stole my heart as he brought along his trustynotebook computer to compute by the glow of the campfire! Now that's onehip beagle!
Kids (ages 4 through 8 years) learn to read, write letters and improve hand-eyecoordination as they explore five creative learning games, twelvetelevision-styleanimated scenes and more than 160 clickable "hot spots". There are threelevels ofdifficulty to choose from.
Film-quality animation with bold, vivid colors and an excellent audio mixwith authentic tunes makes Snoopy's Campfire Stories fun to play for hours.With a little bit of imagination, the campfire scene seems real withshooting stars and many clickables. Missing is the smell of toastedmarshmellows, hard rocks to sit on and those pesky bug bites.
When Charlie Brown arrives at camp, he asks kids to add their name to theCamp Registration board. There are two options to choose: Play or Learn.The Play option takes kids to the Activity Board, while the Learn optiontakes you to a tutorial.
You can go fishing with Peppermint Patty, catch bugs with Sally, race boatswith Charlie Brown, make snacks with Lucy or take pictures with Linus. Ofcourse, themain goal of any camp is to have fun! And boy, do we ever have fun withthis one!
The main screen centers around Charlie Brown and his friends roastingmarshmellows and telling tales around the campfire. The character youchose in the Activity Board then dictates a letter to notebook-packin'Snoopy. Hear, you'll listen as the Peanuts gang tells all about their day.Since there are five characters to select from, kids can listen to fivedifferent stories. The text of the letter Snoopy types appears on thebottom of the screen so kids can read along. Some of the sentences arehilarious like this one from Lucy to Schroeder: "All I did today was eat!"
The fishing activity with Peppermint Patty was a hoot. Here, kids canpractice fishing by clicking their mouse and guiding the fish hook to helpCharlie Brown catch (what else?) a fish or two. It's a totally wonderfulgame, without the usual icky decisions kids are faced with once they catchtheir first live fish! Kids will learn the names of a dozen types of fishin the lake while having loads of fun.
Making snacks with Lucy requires a visit to the Food Factory!Four-year-old Timmy got a kick out of ordering snacks and making killer icecream sundaes. Kids can stack a huge sundae with many mounds of ice creamor make a monster-sized sandwich with all kinds of yummy stuff whilewatching Snoopy put the ingredients through a gizmo-like machine. While atthe Food Factory, be sure to play a tune from the jukebox. Making virtualsandwiches is good practice for the preschool set. This can be done byclicking a mouse without making a mess in Mommy's kitchen!! Hey, save mesome chocolate ice cream!
Get the bug spray handy as you play bug detective in the Great Bug Huntwith blonde-haired Sally and friends. This is a zany game where kids findfive different kinds of bugs and sort them in jars. Awesome sound effectsmake this game a "must" play for kids of all ages.
Good grief, Charlie Brown! Help Charlie Brown test the new boats thePeanuts gang built in the Boat Race Game. Clicking arrows up, down, leftand right to navigate the tiny boats around logs was difficult to do. Thecontrols seemed awkward in all three difficulty levels. The clock isticking as the object of the game is to safely steer the boat aroundobstacles in the shark-infested waters. Hit a log and your boat is in bigtrouble as it makes a ringing sound until you correct its position. Withlots of practice, kids might be able to use some fine motor skills to steertheir boats around the logs. Be sure to pack a little bit of determinationand alot of patience when you play this game.
A clever activity is taking pictures with Linus. Here, kids can move theircursor over an animal in motion and snap a picture of it. The pictures, ofcourse, go in a big scrapbook that Linus is putting together. Other than adisgusting garbage can which makes belching sounds, this was lots of laughsfor the kids.
Easy navigation between the games and the animated scenes makes Snoopy'sCampfire Stories a winner for Peanuts fans, young and old. There's also anoption to hear individual words and sentences in the letters that Snoopytypes out. Kids can personalize the letter by adding words or sentences toan easy-to-use letter template just by clicking on different words. A funway to "type" a letter without typing for younger kids.
Writing letters has never been this much fun! Put another log on the fireand play Snoopy's Campfire Stories for a wacky, fun-filled adventure.
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
Snoopy's Campfire Stories |
| Company: |
Virgin Sound and Vision
|
| Cost: |
$29.95 |
System Requirements:
Windows
IBM PC or compatible
486/33 MHz processor
8 MB RAM
Windows 3.1 or higher, Windows for Workgroups 1.1 or higher, or Windows 95
MPC-compatible sound card
MPC-compatible mouse
PC-compatible double speed CD-ROM drive
Macintosh
Apple Macintosh 68030/33 MHz
System 7.0 or later
8 MB RAM
13" or larger monitor, 256 colors
Double-speed CD-ROM drive
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 5
Sound 5
Overall Score:
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